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Ford's forgotten T-Drive program

October 28, 2012

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Digital boss Andy Stoy recently passed along this little piece of nearly forgotten Ford history from the early 1990s. We know that our girl Murilee Martin dug this up way back in 2010, but the wonder of the Ford T-Drive system is worth revisiting.

According to Drivingenthusiast.com, “T-drive is a system consisting of a transversally located inline engine, a transmission and associated packaging.” The transmission is mounted to the side of the engine, or the back, depending on how you look at things. The arrangement allowed for all-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, or front-wheel drive. And yes, that's an inline-eight in the engine bay of a Ford Tempo.

Though it looks a little silly, Ford had big plans for the T-drive system. Its proponents even suggested that it could be Ford's “centerpiece engine technology.” But, because the setup was buzzy, unreliable and created what we'll call unorthodox weight distribution, the project was scrapped. Head on over to Drivingenthusiast.com for more on this bit of oddball engineering from the Blue Oval.